RMIT and University of Sheffield form new partnership on advanced manufacturing

RMIT and the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre have formalised a memorandum of understanding, which would see them partnering on industry-driven research addressing a “range of problems in advanced manufacturing”.

The announcement was made ahead of Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix event at Melbourne. The partnership between the UK and Australian universities demonstrated a shared commitment to manufacturing research, said RMIT Vice-Chancellor Martin Bean. Academics from both universities would follow the announcement by making reciprocal visits throughout this year.

“Our excellence in aerospace and automotive engineering, and our focus on applied research across engineering materials and advanced manufacturing means that our innovation centres are helping industry to address real-world problems,” Bean said in a statement.

University of Sheffield’s renowned AMRC was founded in 2001, and the cluster around and in it includes Rolls-Royce’s Factory of the Future, and the newly-opened Boeing factory. It was the anchor tenant at Advanced Manufacturing Park, at which supercar maker McLaren also opened a 50-million-pound Composites Technology Centre last year.

Executive Dean of the AMRC Keith Ridgway said the Formula 1 was a fitting backdrop for the announcement, given the event’s partnership with RMIT and the AMRC’s partnership with McLaren.

“As a global research facility it is vital for the AMRC to build relations with like-minded engineering and manufacturing institutions around the world, and Australia is the sort of can-do, entrepreneurial place where we can help to make difference,” according to Ridgway.

“With the University of Sheffield housing the most advanced example of a research and innovation facility for manufacturing in the UK, RMIT has also expressed an interest in working with the AMRC to establish its own ‘factory of the future’ to showcase its engineering capabilities to industry, schools and the local community,” said RMIT.

Picture: amrc.co.uk/news/mclaren-automotive-inaugurates-new-carbon-composites-technology-centre-in-true-mclaren-style